Human Memory in the Digital Age

Description

Advanced Study Group, at Pufendorf Institute

Layman's description

Much of human interaction and communication increasingly takes place in a digital universe. The professional and personal lives of many people today include both offline and online elements. At work, computers constitute an essential tool; in private, the smartphone is an omnipresent device that connects one with family and friends, delivers entertainment and news and serves as planning tool and calendar – all activities that are part of the human memory-making.

The aim of this ASG is to explore the effects of digitalisation processes on human memory by creating a network of scholars interested in both memory and digital technologies. Multi-disciplinary in nature, this ASG provides an environment where scientists from several faculties at Lund University get together and exchange ideas and knowledge from their respective fields in order to answer the main objective of the group: How is human memory affected by the increased digitalized universe in which people unfold their professional and personal lives? By human memory we understand here the social representations of the past, at both the individual and collective levels. Ultimately, the proposed ASG will result in the creation of a network of scholars across several faculties at Lund University, who will be able to develop connections with like-minded researchers abroad and to formulate research questions that may form the basis for larger grant applications for both Swedish and international/European funds.